30 HISTORY OF THE GEMS FOUND IX XORTH CAKOLIXA.
the
Morgan-Tiffany collection at Xew York, the most irregular was 20-1/2
pounds in weight, with the entire surface rough and opaque like ground
glass, and almost spherical in form, but the interior perfectly
transparent. In a few instances, they had a coating of rich green
chlorite that penetrated to the depth of an inch. This, when left on
the quartz, gave the cut crystal, after polishing, the effect of a pool
of water with green moss growing on the bottom.
Many
beautiful articles have been made from this Ashe County material. One
was an elegantly carved vinaigrette or scent-bottle, exhibited at the
Paris Exposition of 1889. A crystal ball 5 inches in diameter, and a
number of art objects, all of American workmanship, made from the same
material, were shown at the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893,
and some of these are now in the Tiffany collection in Higin-botham
Hall, in the Field Columbian Museum in that city. These were all made
in the Tiffany ateliers in New York.
By
far the most important piece from this locality, however, was a
magnificent crystal obtained in 1888 by the author at the same
locality. This was worked up into a special design, and exhibited as
the finest piece of American lapidary work ever executed in rock
crystal. It was the most important art object of stone at the great
Paris Exposition of 1900, where it was shown by the makers, Tiffany
& Company. It now will form part of the F. A. Matthiesen memorial
gift, lately presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
City.
Another
North Carolina locality was reported in 1896, by Mr. E. M. Chatham, who
described crystals up to 40 pounds in weight, from Elkin, in Surrey
County. Some large crystals are also known from South Carolina; and it
is probable that a good deal of rock-crystal, capable of use in the
arts, exists in the mountain region of the South.
The
report of the finding near Bakersville of transparent crystals of
quartz, weighing G42 pounds and 340 pounds respectively, was premature,
as the specimens proved to be veins of translucent quartzite, with the
crystalline markings of a group rather than of a single crystal. The
clear spaces, which were to be observed only on these crystalline
sides, w7ould hardly afford material for a crystal ball an
inch in diameter, and with this exception they are almost an opaque
white, with flaws. Notwithstanding this error, it is certain that some
localities in North Carolina have yielded larger masses of clear
rock-crystal than any other State in the Union until the recent
developments in Calaveras County, California.
In
Alexander and Burke counties, N. C, crystals of white as well as of
smoky quartz have been found, in which were spaces that would cut into
